This Physician-Scientist Builds Real Tools for Real Problems

Rachel Draelos has unusually good timing. She finished a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence in 2022 — right before everyone else started paying attention.

But Rachel isn’t just an AI researcher. She’s a physician scientist. At Duke University, she became the first person to earn both an M.D. from the medical school and a Ph.D. in computer science from the graduate school.

About halfway through her studies, she started launching her own initiatives. Upwork was a backup plan — until it became something more. 

Medicine meets AI

Rachel started college as a biology major with plans to become a veterinarian. Her path shifted when she discovered the dual-degree M.D. and Ph.D. program, which combines medical training with scientific research.

During graduate school, several people suggested she explore artificial intelligence. She joined an AI research group and quickly realized the field fit her interests. Her work focused on computer vision and natural language processing.

By graduation, Rachel was busy running her own company — AI-driven software for medical practices that helped clinicians save more than two hours a day. "I managed the engineering and sales teams, secured two U.S. patents, and raised competitive grant funding," she said.

Still, like many founders, Rachel faced constant tension between building a product or building stability.

“I wasn't paying myself to work on the startup,” she said. “I thought: I have these technical skills in AI and there are many people interested in that. Why don't I try some consulting on the side?”

Consulting offered a practical middle ground. It would bring in income while she continued working on her startup.

But first she needed to find some clients.

When the “side hustle” started to take off

“When you first sign up for Upwork, no one has a clue who you are,” Rachel explained. “I started out with a lower rate to get more projects initially.”

She wasn’t trying to maximize income yet. She was trying to gain credibility through reviews, completed projects, and a track record that would make the next client easier to win.

The strategy was successful, and work came in. She was surprised by the number of opportunities as well as the varied kinds of work she found. New projects came from everywhere:

• Health-related companies drawn to her physician background
• People excited to test new AI concepts
• Businesses from different industries who want to apply AI tools to their specific problems

“Upwork has a lot of projects where you can build things,” she said. “I love talking about ideas and strategy, but it’s even better to actually build it.”

Within two years, consulting no longer felt like a side project. She shut down her startup and went all-in on freelancing.

Turning insights into tools that make a difference

Rachel’s favorite projects start with a simple question and end with something people can use in the real world.

One project for a dermatologist began with a challenge: Could software analyze facial photos and measure characteristics like skin tone, pigmentation, and wrinkle severity to help non-dermatologists choose safer laser treatment settings?

“In the research literature there had been some preliminary work,” Rachel said. “But there were no models that predicted all the characteristics she needed.”

So they made their own model.

Rachel helped create the dataset, designed the labeling process, and trained the models until the final system reached a mean accuracy of 85%.

The work was strong enough to publish in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology.

The same innovative approach shows up across her consulting work:

• For Remi, an app that provides a safe space to process thoughts, she helped clarify the model architecture then built the AI engine to power the app. 
• For a physical therapy practice, she trained a model that identifies posture issues from photos. 
• For a surgical clinic, she developed a system that predicts whether a patient is likely to be a good candidate for surgery, to streamline appointment bookings.

In each case, Rachel’s goal is the same: Turn a promising idea into something people can actually use.

Solving real-world problems with AI

Rachel originally joined Upwork for practical reasons. What she discovered was a way to apply her expertise much more broadly than she originally expected.

“I’ve connected with a lot of people I never would have met on my own,” she said.

Today, her work spans multiple industries, organizations, and technical challenges. As more companies explore how to apply AI in their own operations, Rachel expects demand for practical and specialized expertise to keep growing.

And she’s ready to help shape what comes next.